Introducing New Fish

[justin85]

Hello all I just wanted to ask advice a double check on something. Ok so I have a 200L tank fully cycled and ready to keep cichlids, at the moment I am adding ammonia daily to keep the bacteria alive untill my fish come, so I know I need to do a 90% water change to remove the nitrates, but want to know the best way to go about doing this.

So my fish are coming Tuesday before 12:00, this is my plan so please correct me if I'm wrong or there is a better way of preparing.

Leading up to Monday I will be slowly reducing the temperature of the tank to its reqired temperature as I had it warmer to speed up the cycle.
I have been dosing ammonia up to 4ppm at 6:00pm every day, so Monday I will be changing 90% of the water then testing to make sure the nitrate is low if more water changes are needed I will do, on Monday night after I have done water change should I dose ammonia ? Or will the bacteria be ok untill the next morning ?

Any advice is welcome.

 

[fluttermoth]

You won't need to ad more ammonia after your big water change; the bacteria will be fine until the next day.

 

[justin85]

Ok, I will be adding 10 fish am I right in thinking this is safe because of the amount of ammonia that has been added to cycle the tank ?

 

[hensonc4098]

Depends on the size and type of fish, however there shouldn't be a problem unless you're adding large and messy fish.

 

[justin85]

Pseudotropheus Saulosi I don't think there adult size.

 

[hensonc4098]

No reason to be a problem If you were planning on adding something like 10 plecs or other crazy bioload then would be an issue, but fish like them will be fine. Just keep an eye on your stats and if you see anything you don't like, big water changes to keep ammonia and nitrite levels down until the bacteria catch up.

 

[justin85]

No reason to be a problem If you were planning on adding something like 10 plecs or other crazy bioload then would be an issue, but fish like them will be fine. Just keep an eye on your stats and if you see anything you don't like, big water changes to keep ammonia and nitrite levels down until the bacteria catch up.

Will do, daily tests for a week to make sure everything is good. Thanks

 

[jb1997mcd]

You should be good to go. One way to look at it.

If your tank is able to tackle 4ppm of ammonia every 24 hrs you are going to have a hard time having fish replicate the 4ppm in 24 hrs unless your tank is really overstocked.

jb